Recipe: Using macros to check abbreviation lists in table footnotes

6/3/2026

Recipe: Using macros to check abbreviation lists in table footnotes

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I often have to create of check that the lists of abbreviations and their definitions given in table legends or footnotes are complete – and this is how I do it.

Ingredients

You will need:

a table containing abbreviations with a list of those abbrevations and their definitions that need to be checked
a macro that lists all the abbreviations in a document – I use Paul Beverley's AcronymAlyse (click here for the link to the macro and here for instructions on how to use it)
a macro that takes a selected table, pastes it into a new document and runs the first macro – I asked ChatGPT to write this for me, it's called SelectTableRunAcronymAlyse (can you see what I did there?) and you can find it here.

Initial preparation:
The complicated part of this process is setting up SelectTableRunAcronymAlyse to run AcronymAlyse on your system. If you look at the macro code, towards the end you can see this line:

In this instruction, "your existing macro" is your version of AcronymAlyse. You need to add the full path name for that macro including the project name and the module in the format "ProjectName.ModuleName.YourExistingMacroName". On my system, this looks like: "NewMacros.Module1.AcronymAlyse". It is likely to be different on your system – look at the structure on the top left-hand side in your VBA window.

Remember to be careful when installing other people's macros onto your system!

Method

Here's an example table that I need to extract the abbreviations from to list and define. In this case, I need the abbreviations and their definitions listed in alphabetical order in the table footnote.

I've added my SelectTableRunAcronymAlyse macro to a button on my Quick Access Toolbar, so to run the macro I just select the table and click on the button. In my set up of AcronymAlyse, the macro asks me whether I want to include abbreviations with numbers in my list. I usually say "Yes" and then I let the macro do its thing. This involves creating a couple of new Word documents – so just sit back and wait for it to finish.
The macro gives you a message to let you know when it's finished.

You now have a table with a list of all the abbreviations in your table to check against your list. Column 2 in the table gives you a count of how many times each abbreviaiton has been used (just in case you have instructions to use full terms for abbreviations that have only been used once or twice).

Sometimes you have to create the abbreviations list yourself. I'll show you how I do that (yes – it does involve a couple more macros) in another post.

Author

Andrea at Yours Truleigh Editing.
www.yourstruleighediting.com